Homemade Melona Bar (Honeydew Melon Ice Pops)

Make a popular Korean popsicle – Melona bar from your home! It takes less than 10 minutes to assemble! Easy & delicious!

One of my childhood favourite ice creams is Melona (메로나) – Honeydew melon ice pops. I used to buy it for 100 won (about AU$0.10). It was a very affordable and super delicious summer snack to me.

Melona was considered a uniquely flavoured ice cream when it first launched in 1992. Its slightly creamy and elegantly chewy texture was very different to any other popsicles around at that time.

Apparently, it was made to taste more like yellow melon (Korean hybrid -Chamoe,참외) rather than honeydew melon because most Koreans weren’t used to the honeydew melon taste back then. I was very surprised to find out this fact myself! (If you can read Korean, you can read about it from this news article.)

Two decades later, Melona is one of the best-selling ice cream brands in Korea, and there are a few copycat brands too. But the most famous brand is Melona (메로나) by Binggrae.

I didn’t know how popular this popsicle is around the world until I decided to make it myself. Because there was overwhelming interest on various forums on the internet to find out how to make Melona bars at home. Is it popular in your country? Have you all tasted it before?

For your information, this is a redo of my old recipe from 2013. I recently learnt how to make this popsicle creamier! (My previous recipe was quite icy, like sorbet. In case some of you may prefer sorbet style popsicles, I left my original recipe in the recipe card at the end of the post.) 😉

I hope you enjoy creating these simple Melona bars at home. It takes less than 10 minutes to put together. The hardest part is waiting 8 hours for it to freeze! Lol.

Also, this will make a great family summer holiday project! Let me know how yours turn out! Enjoy!

Ingredients for 5 to 6 small popsicles

1/2 cup cold heavy cream (This is suitable for whipping cream, it’s known as thickened cream in Australia, but I used “pure cream” – without any additives or thickening agents.)

180g/6.3 ounce ripe honeydew melon, seeded and cut into small chunks

1 Tbsp of honey

(optional) 1 small drop of green food colouring

* 1 Tbsp = 15 ml, 1 Cup = 250 ml

How to make Melona Bar

2. Blend the honeydew melon, honey and food colouring (if adding) in a blender until pureed.

3. Combine the whipped cream and the pureed honeydew melon by gently folding the cream. (Don’t whisk or stir as it will ruin the texture of the cream.) This should result in about 1 and 1/3 cup of mixture.

4. Pour the honeydew melon – cream mixture into ice pop moulds and freeze them until slushy (for about 2 hrs). Insert the ice pop sticks then return them to freeze until completely frozen (a further 6 hrs or overnight).

Note:

Make sure you don’t over whip the cream as it can turn into butter quite easily and quickly if you don’t pay attention to the bowl while whipping.

You may try other types of sweeteners (e.g. caster sugar, sweetened condensed milk, corn syrup and honey) if that’s what you prefer. I have tried all of these combinations but honey worked the best for me for the texture and flavour wise. As an example, when I made the popsicle with sweetened condensed milk, it created a bitter tasting popsicle.

I used a paper cup as a mould. It made it really easy to take out the popsicles as I could push from the bottom of the cup to release the popsicle. I also have tried a glass mould (e.g. shot glass), in this case, I had to dip the glass in hot water for 2 to 3 seconds to warm up the bottom end. It was then very easy to take the popsicle out.

Update:

This post was originally posted on February 11, 2013, and it is now updated with a new recipe and photographs. However, you can still access my original recipe (sorbet style) in the below recipe card.

Blend the honeydew melon, honey and food colouring (if adding) in a blender until pureed.

Combine the whipped cream and the pureed honeydew melon by gently folding the cream. (Don’t whisk or stir as it will ruin the texture of the cream.) This should result in about 1 and 1/3 cup of mixture.

Pour the honeydew melon - cream mixture into ice pop moulds and freeze them until slushy (for about 2 hrs). Insert the ice pop sticks then return them to freeze until completely frozen (a further 6 hrs or overnight).

Sorbet-Style Popsicles

Pour the cream into a pot and add the honey. Boil and stir it on low medium to low heat for about 3 mins. (Stir well to dissolve the honey and not to burn the cream). Turn off the heat, set it aside and cool it down for about 5 mins.

Cut the cleaned honeydew melon into small chunks and put them into a food processor/blender. Blend it until it turns to puree.

Combine the cooled cream (from step 1) and the pureed melon (from step 2) in a bowl. whisk well. Pour the honeydew cream mixture into ice pop moulds and freeze it for at least 6 hours.

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I can’t wait to try this recipe I used to be addicted to melona bars before I became allergic to lactose. Do you have any suggestion for a lactose free substitute for the cream? I usually use canned coconut milk to make whipped cream, would that work equally as well?

Hi Alison, If you’re already familiar with coconut milk, then I would use that. I’ve never made whipped cream out of coconut milk before, so I don’t know whether the consistency would be the same. But essesntially, whipped creame (made out of heavy cream) is what you will need to make this ice cream. So go for it! Let us know how it turns out. 🙂

I love your recipe, recently trip to Buenos Aires and went to Chinatown Belgrano and probe melona melon flavor and taste fascinated me, I live in Cordoba and Argentina are no rich ice cream here but never with that taste so fresh and creamy so voya try your recipe.
I love Korea, I see novels and I love kpop, always pruevo Korean recipes, so far that I like are ganhoe, bibimbap, Korean rolling egg itself all but those are my favorites. im Sorry by my english. i dont speak fine english

For a baker in the United states, what is the equivalent of natural cream? I assume it’s not whipping cream, but maybe half and half? Whole milk? Looking forward to making these today from my csa box honeydew!

Hi Marsha, as I’m not much of a baker, I don’t know what’s equivalent of natural cream. All I can say is, it’s not whipping cream but you can make a whipped cream with it. This natural cream does not contain any sugar or anything artificial ingredients, it’s pure 100% cream. The texture is runny like milk but a bit thicker but not as thick as thickened cream. I did my best to describe this I hope you can find something equivalent in the US! I am not familiar with the names of cream in the USA, but it could be Whole Milk Cream.

What you’re describing is exactly what what we here in the US call heavy cream. It’s made from whole milk and is the only natural product from which whipped cream can be made here. I guess I should have used the term heavy cream instead of whipping cream. It has one of the highest fat contents, and makes dairy products like ice cream have the recognizable creamy texture.

Spent some months in Beijing a few years ago and the Chinese version was an almost daily guilty pleasure – they also have an icepop made with sweetcorn which is pretty nice, but the melon is my fav. I can’t remember the quantities for sure, but I think a small amount of liquid glycerine will help you get it softer – it works in sorbets. Here in London, which is still cold and dreary this morning, honeydew season is just about to begin…so hopefully, I’ll be able to let you know…

I LOVE Melona pops! My sister and I tried them a couple of months ago for the first time, we found them at our big Korean grocery store here – instantly addicted. Also, I can’t believe how many came in one bag.

I recently started following your blog, and I just wanted to tell you that I love it!

Thank you for posting this recipe about Melona bars — I used to buy them when I lived in Korea, and even now, they still call to me when I go to the Korean grocers.

I wanted to make a suggestion for keeping the ice cream softer. Have you tried cornstarch? I use it when I make strawberry sorbet, and that really seems to keep my sorbet smoother and silkier. Here is a link to my recipe for sorbet on Bigoven.com. That will give you some sense of the proportions I use.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that when I make sorbet, if I freeze it in a mold right away, it gets really hard. Also, if I use an ice cream maker and over-churn it, it will get super hard in the freezer. Maybe you could try an ice cream maker again, but just turn it enough add air and get it to a soft solid state. Then try packing it into your mold.